Foster
by Cranky Guy
Summary: Uzumaki Naru was never the luckiest girl, but after the Sandaime’s death the little luck she had ran out. Now, four years later it seems like there might still be hope. FemNaru, well duh. NOT SasuNaru
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Alright folks. First fanfic to be posted. (Title was inspired by April Sixth's song)  
**

**Disclaimer: I am telling this only once, since in the time I will be writing this fanfic I doubt I'll be able to change the fact that I don't own Naruto.**

**Foster **

She honestly believed that as time passed things would change for the better. After years of waiting she decided that nothing was going to change after all. That's what life was like. Things might be changing on the outside but on the inside everything stayed the same. Or maybe it was just her personal luck... or lack thereof.

She crept up the stairs and opened the door to her apartment., standing still in the doorway for a moment and letting out a sigh she didn't know she was holding.

Flipping on the light, she warily made her way to the bathroom. Once inside, she stood before the medium sized mirror, staring at her reflection. The blond hair hung limply in front of her face, covering it completely. She was used to it by now, but it was a major pain when she first decided to keep that hairstyle. In fact, her hairstyle was almost comical. While the hair in front of her face was thick enough to hide it from view, the hair on the back of her head was rather short, for a girl anyway. It was tied up into a low, very short and spiky ponytail.

Carefully she pried the mirror from the wall and put it on the closed toilet seat.

Undressing was a simple and quick matter. The dark blue, long sleeved jacket was discarded first, followed by the form fitting shirt underneath. Pants and bandages that were formerly tied around her ankles went next, leaving her in only her bra and panties. And bloodied bandages.

She examined her body for any new injuries and followed it up by looking at her old, not yet healed wounds.

From afar people would say she had a figure of a good looking young girl, even if a little short. Up close they would first stare and then slowly back away. It was natural, really. Her skin was mutilated to the point that almost all of it was covered in scars. Be it the long, even ones or winding and short ones, she had them all. She usually tried not to think about how exactly she received them.

Of course, her face was no exception, which was the main reason behind her current hairstyle.

After taking care of her injuries she made her way back to the rest of her apartment. In her bedroom she put on a pair of sweat pants and a simple t-shirt and went to bed, shutting off the lights with a well aimed but blunted kunai.

And then... Uzumaki Naru dreamed.

* * *

What do you mean the entire clan was annihilated? It's impossible! They are the Uchiha! They have the Shari-..._That's what I overheard in the street..._

...the boy? We can't leave him by himself. Someone will have to adopt him. But-... _That's what I heard when I stayed with Jiji at the Hokage tower._

...can't let the major clans have him. They would only use him and shape him into the next Itachi. But they have the best chances with the-... _That's what I heard Jiji say before he asked me to bring him some tea._

...right?! Please tell me you're not serious! What kind of gamble is that?! If they adopt the Kyu-... _That's what I heard not five seconds after Jiji asked me to bring him some tea._

...is Sasuke and this is Sakura. They will be your siblings from today onward. This young woman is going to be your new mo-... _That's what Jiji told me when Sasuke and I were adopted by the Harunos._

...only adopted you because of Sasuke-kun! Cause I asked them to! So don't you dare -... _That's __what Sakura told me when Sasuke and I were adopted by the Harunos._

...dead last? So what if you graduated? You don't even have a team. And you call yourself a kunoichi? Really, and what about that strange graduation? I mean, we've all seen how you failed the exam and now you're here with a hitaiate? Honestly, Na-... _That's what Sasuke told me when I graduated._

...exams are over, you'll be assigned a team and a jounin sensei. Don't worry. I'm sure you will like them. You've probably met them already, at the academy. They were in the class below you, so at the very least you should have already seen them. They are an energetic bunch, so you'll fit in just fine. And by the wa-... _That's what Jiji told me before the chuunin exams._

...this total pervert! He's a complete idiot, but he's stronger than that elite teacher Kurenai-sensei told me to train with and he knows his stuff when it comes down to it, so I thought I'd stick with him for the time being. I asked around afterwards and found out, that this guy is actually one of the three Sannin! Can you imagine that?! He's teaching me this cool summ-..._That's what I heard Kiba say when he and his team stopped by at the Ichiraku's._

...irst mission. Make sure to complete it properly."

"But Sandaime-jiji said that I was going to be assigned to a team and-"

"That would have been the case, but after the invasion we are lacking jounins. Besides we can not possibly allow genin to be placed in the same team as _you_. I will not beat around the bush. In my opinion, you are a dangerous, ticking time bomb and I intend to keep you out of the village as much as possible."

"...I... Understand."-... _That's what I've been told by the council after the Sand and Sound invasion. In the end, even after Tsunade-sama was brought back and took the position of the Godaime Hokage, nothing changed. I doubt she even knows I exist._

* * *

As she continued to dream about the past and the events playing out before her became more and more recent, she began to actually see things playing out before her. She was at least spared from reliving those horrible experiences again, instead observing them from the sidelines.

* * *

It was a mission gone wrong. As usual, Naru had been assigned an S-rank, despite her genin status. 

In the meantime she was able to figure out, that it wasn't a sign of trust from the council but rather an attempt to get rid of her without dirtying their own hands.

This time they really outdid themselves. Sending her into enemy territory, in the land of Rice with the mission to invade and destroy multiple Sound outposts. At the age of fourteen, Naru considered herself to be one of the best kunoichi in Konoha. Despite her lacking genjutsu and rather sloppy taijutsu, her ninjutsu and her supreme speed more than made up for it. Though, she would grudgingly admit that it was still pure luck that she survived to get this far. She never had a sensei to show her new strong techniques, neither was she instructed in the proper ways of chakra control and taijutsu forms. Still, by observing the training of jounin and their genin cells she was able to pick out bits and pieces of information that she used in her own training schedule.

Of course the main reason she survived was also the reason she was sent on S-ranked missions in the first place. If she had to be completely honest with herself, she would have to admit that without the Kyuubi she would have died on more than half of the missions she had been on.

Either way, now she was done for. Her strong points as a kunoichi have been infiltration, assassination and one on one combat. She could just swarm the area with shadow clones, but usually they didn't last long, seeing as they had too little chakra to perform any useful techniques and Naru herself wasn't that good at actually evading damage. Destroying the outposts one by one with those skills would have been hard but not impossible. However, as luck would have it, the third outpost she infiltrated had one unexpected factor.

The aforementioned factor had silver hair, wore glasses and could kill or make you incapable of movement by just touching you, which was exactly what happened. While Naru was occupied fighting off a sound jounin that discovered her, the silver haired medic-nin attacked her from behind and with a couple of swift movements she was sprawled out on the floor and not able to move either of her limbs. Of course that wouldn't have been enough to stall her for long, seeing as the demon fox within her could repair such damage in mere minutes, but apparently the silver haired guy wasn't going to let her wait that long.

Another swift movement of Kabuto's hand and the world went black.

The next thing she remembered was being locked in a cell, stripped of all of her possessions and with a strange device connected to her stomach. The device had a round core, with something akin to a yin and yang sign on it, except the sides which should have been black and white were done in red and blue respectively. As she later noticed, the strange machine was blocking her chakra.

A week after her imprisonment, Kabuto showed up to see her. After examining her he proceeded to leave her for another week. However, unlike what Naru thought would happen to her, namely interrogation followed by death, she was instead transported to another location.

And that's when the true horror began. Apparently the glasses wearing sound nin had noticed her rapid healing despite the chakra blocker that still rested on her stomach. The leader of the Sound, Orochimaru, took interest in that and decided to see just how much damage Naru's body could take.

Naru didn't know how long the experiments lasted and whether or not they stopped at all. Hours of torture turned into days and days into months. She drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes finding herself inside her own mind, which resembled an enormous sewer, and sometimes she was blessed with simple blackness.

Whenever she found herself inside her mind she would hear the Kyuubi just beyond the seal. She never approached the gates that separated them, and never tried to talk to the vile being.

True to Kabuto's expectations her body healed and not even scars were left to show that the body suffered damage at some point. However as time passed, the healing slowed, and finally came to a stop.

Naru found herself inside her mind again. But this time she couldn't hear the demon that took residence inside of her. For the first time in her life, the blond kunoichi approached the gate that was held together by a seal. What she found there disturbed her to the deepest part of her soul.

Instead of the enormous and bloodthirsty beast, as Kyuubi was usually pictured in stories, she found an enormous but almost lifeless body. A red, slitted eye stared at her tiredly. She could see a thin stream of some red essence flowing from the beast into the seal, spreading from there into the pipes of the sewer that was her mind. She was shocked speechless until the very moment that she found herself waking up again.

Her torturers were fussing about, but she didn't really care. What really surprised her, was her treatment. Instead of making new wounds they were closing the ones that were already made. After she was sufficiently bandaged, she was transported out of the room, for the first time since she arrived there. They placed her into a cell again, and left. A week later they returned and started their experiments anew, but when her healing factor didn't reappear after two days of torture, she was once again brought back into her cell.

This routine was repeated every week, however her injuries didn't heal any faster that those of a normal person. In those periods Naru found herself in her mind again. When she went to check on her prisoner, she found the cage empty. She went past the bars of the cell, but could discover nothing but blackness all around her.

After a month of fruitless attempts the torturers, who called themselves scientists, gave up. Naru was locked in her cell, and it was another two and a half months before she was visited by someone else, other than the guard that brought her food. At that point in time the young girl had given up hope of ever leaving Rice Country alive. But fate seemed to love to prove her wrong. Her visitors were a team of jounin from Suna who, along with several other Suna teams, had attacked and destroyed the outpost that Naru currently inhabited.

After confirming her identity and treating her wounds to the point of her being safe for transportation they sent her back to Konoha with an escort of several chuunin. Upon arrival, they instructed the chuunin guards to take her to the hospital as soon as possible. The guard obeyed since, as Naru figured out later, in between the bandages and the scars her body was beyond recognition.

In the hospital she was attended to and her wounds were treated. When she woke up they demanded an ID. After receiving it they quickly refused to treat her any longer and said that she would be fine on her own.

* * *

Naru never woke up gasping and in cold sweat, even after nightmares like this one. Her eyes just opened and that was it. Regarding her ceiling with a bored look, the now sixteen year old girl wondered, whether or not she would be able to get rid of the scars sometime, at least the ones on her face. It wasn't that hard really. The medic nins even had a special jutsu just for that, which explained why there were so many kunoichi and shinobi who were actually _attractive_. After all, the head was one of the most often targeted areas of the body. Some ninja chose not to remove the scars, like her former academy teacher Iruka. She supposed that the scar held some emotional value to him. That didn't matter though, as he was long dead, killed in the Sand and Sound invasion four years ago. 

It had been almost two years since the Kyuubi's supposed death. On the very same day Naru was back in Konoha and after being treated in the hospital, she hastily wrote two reports, as she usually did. One to the Hokage and the other to the council. She knew for a fact that neither of the parties read it. Tsunade disliked paperwork and avoided it if she could help it which resulted in reports and other paperwork getting piled up and still catching dust somewhere in the Hokage's office.

As for the council... They didn't care either way. Naru knew that they were merely interested in seeing her dead and even if they _had_ read it they probably wouldn't have believed it anyway.

Which pretty much described her current situation. She had moved out from her adopted family's home even before she had been sent on that disastrous mission. They were never a real family to begin with which was made painfully clear to her on the very first day by Sakura.

Naru wasn't in Konoha for more than ninety percent of the time. And she had somehow managed to survive even without Kyuubi. It did help that improving her chakra control became ridiculously easy after the demon fox vanished. If earlier her ninjutsu was formidable, she doubted that there was even a single ninja in Konoha who could match her now, not even Tsunade. Though, she had yet to test this theory.

She steered her gaze from the ceiling and moved it to the window which, according to her instincts, should open right about now. And open it did. As usual the chuunin assigned to deliver her next mission crept in and, all the while trying to hide his presence, made his way to the desk that was placed against a wall in her bedroom. As usual he didn't notice that Naru was actually wide awake.

Once he left, Naru stood and opened the scroll. The mission was somewhere in wind country and had to be carried out immediately. Which was also pretty much usual. The young kunoichi never had a break and essentially she didn't have a life outside her missions anymore. Apparently the council was not satisfied with her survival and wished to finish the job as soon as possible. From their perspective it was like killing two birds at the same time, seeing as Naru was almost never in Konoha and didn't interact with the villagers, thus posing no threat to them.

Naru sighed and headed to collect some supplies she would need on the mission.

* * *

Shizune stared at her mentor in awe as Tsunade continued to read and sign the many different forms and documents that had been strewn all over the place not a week ago. 

"Tsunade-sama, at this rate you might actually finish all of it! Even all the old ones that collected over the time!" She almost felt like crying, seeing her master work so hard. It was a rare occurrence to say the least. The older woman had been at it since the beginning of the night and still showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

"Of course! This way I'll be able to have some time without doing _any_ paperwork at all! And besides Sakura keeps bugging me about it. She even..." Tsunade abruptly stopped talking and her eyes narrowed, as she stared at the paper she was currently holding.

"Tsunade-sama?"

"...It seems that something strange has been going on in this village for quite some time." She frowned and handed the piece of paper to her apprentice.

"I don't see anything wrong here, Tsunade-sama."

"Yeah, it would seem so at the first glance. It's a report from an S-ranked mission. The thing is, I don't remember handing that mission out. And according to the law, _all_ S-ranks have to go through me and I am the _only_one authorized to assign them to anyone, since they are usually missions requested from our village and not an outside contractor. That's what made me curious first. I thought that it was just long ago and I'd forgotten about it, but then I looked at the rank of the assigned shinobi." Tsunade paused and watched with satisfaction as Shizune found the appropriate piece of information on the report and her eyes widened.

"A genin?! _Alone_?!"

"Exactly. _All_ S-ranks I ever assigned were handed out to jounins or special jounins. And moreover, that name... Uzumaki Naru... It seems kind of familiar... But I'm sure that there is no high ranking shinobi with that name, so this is not just some mistake." Tsunade frowned even more and crossed her arms beneath her chest. After a minute of consideration she made up her mind.

"Get that Uzumaki into my office now. Let's see what this is all about." She ordered with finality and then proceeded to skim through more paperwork, seemingly in search for something.

Shizune bowed shortly and departed, quickly seeking out Inuzuka Kiba who was currently stationed in the Hokage tower doing paperwork because of an injury that took time to heal.

As Tsunade continued her search she found more and more reports from the very same Uzumaki Naru, all of which were either S-ranked or A-ranked. She noted that the A-ranked ones dated back to even before her assignment as Hokage and the very first report was made shortly after the death of Sandaime.

She frowned. Did Danzou make his move in the time period when there was no Hokage and planted one of his little toys? No, that didn't seem likely. He would have known that she would notice something as unusual as this.

Tsunade stood up and made her way out of the office and into one of the rooms that were in the same corridor. Once there she walked along the shelves until she reached the one that was labeled with an "U". The vast majority of the shinobi listed in this section were Uchihas, but as she traveled further, she finally found what she was looking for. There, together with two other folders was another one that had "Uzumaki Naru" written on it. The ones next to it read "Uzumaki Kushina" and "The Uzumaki Clan Records".

Tsunade sighed. She knew that the name sounded familiar. However, those things were in the past and now she had to deal with whatever Minato's and Kushina's daughter had been up to. She took out the appropriate folder and made her way back into her office. Once there and seated in her chair she began to skim through it. She paused a little when she saw one of the photos that was placed over a small article, which described the close relationship between the Sandaime and the girl. The picture showed the old man, without his hat, seating at the counter of some small shop and smiling at the small girl that sat at his side. The girl in question was busy slurping noodles out of a bowl with a light blush of satisfaction on her face.

Tsunade grinned. If anything, the old man knew how to deal with kids.

There were several other photos, showing the small blond with different people. Not all of the photos radiated the same happiness as the first one though. Tsunade was genuinely surprised to see her own student Sakura, along with Uchiha Sasuke and Sakura's family in one of these photos. Both girls had to be around eight years old at the time. Tsunade noted how Sakura's father had his hands on Sasuke's shoulders and Sakura's mother on her daughter's while Naru seemed to be just a part of the background.

The Godaime read the article below out loud.

"At age eight adopted by the Haruno family along with Uchiha Sasuke. The Haruno household seems to have adopted her due to Sandaime-sama's request. See Uchiha Sasuke's folder for details."

Tsunade frowned and decided to see what this was about later and continued what she was originally doing. Soon she found herself at the last pages of the folder. There were several notes, describing her overall ability as a future kunoichi and a large article dedicated to her graduation. Apparently she graduated after learning the Kage Bunshin, but did not pass the initial exam. Because of her late graduation she was left without a team and had yet to be assigned to one.

The last page dated more than four and a half years back. Tsunade frowned even deeper. Did the girl get killed in the Sound and Sand invasion and someone was now using her name to fake reports and get paid for missions they didn't do? But why didn't Sakura tell her anything about her adoptive sister? Then again, other than brief glimpses, the Godaime had seen little of her apprentice's family. She didn't even know that Sasuke was related to her in such a way. Tsunade found herself rubbing her temples. And here she hoped to get rid of the paperwork...

Her musings were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Enter." Tsunade ordered and lifted her eyes to look at the newcomer. She was met with a somewhat fidgety Shizune.

"Did you find her already? That was quick. So, where is she?"

"Err, yes Tsunade-sama, we did find her. Shall...shall I let her in?" Shizune fidgeted a little more. Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, but after you tell me why you are so nervous."

"Err... Um, I... I find her a little... unsettling, that's all. I'm sure you'll understand what I mean once you see her." With that she swiftly opened the door and motioned someone to enter. Whatever Tsunade had been expecting... was not even close to reality.

* * *

Naru finished packing her backpack and headed for her closet. Taking out a new set of dark blue clothes that covered as much skin as possible, she proceeded to put it on. Really, had it not been for the world _outside _of Konoha, Naru doubted she would have lived through these four years. Though, when the Kyuubi was still around and healed her wounds, she still needed something to eat, seeing as demonic chakra alone didn't fill her stomach. Finding a store in Konoha that would sell her anything would have been a hassle in itself, but between all the missions she simply didn't have the time or the energy to look for one. Because of this, whenever she returned from a mission, she took a detour to some village or town to get clothes groceries and... other things that became necessary shortly after she turned thirteen. It was also nice to have people be, if not nice, then at least polite to you. They were nice when she still had a _face_ but after her mutilation experience even that changed. 

After dressing herself and strapping on her kunai holster and weapons pouch she made her way back into the bedroom. She walked up to the nightstand and picked up the two photos that stood there. One was of herself and the the old man Hokage, when he treated her to ramen at Ichiraku's, the other one was of herself and her adoptive family. Even though, as she kept telling herself, they never accepted her as a part of the family, she couldn't bring herself to throw away the picture. She had doodled a little on little Sasuke's face though, giving him a mustache at age eight. The main reason she moved out was because they didn't believe her when she told them she was going on an A-ranked mission (The council first thought that A-ranks would have been enough to kill her. They changed their mind about a year later, when Naru kept coming back, even though she looked like she might keel over at the spot.). When she came back, exhausted, hurt and after having had to kill for the first time in her life, her adoptive mother told her to stop pretending, go wash up and to stop running away because her siblings were better shinobi than her. Naru didn't find it in herself to argue. The next day she started looking for an apartment and soon enough found one. It was in the old part of Konoha, where almost no one lived anymore, seeing as most buildings were destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the Kyuubi attack. The manager agreed to let her rend the apartment as long as she paid double the normal fee. He made a deal with the devil. Naru smirked at the joke only she could laugh about.

Then there was a knock on the door.

Naru tensed immediately. No one ever paid her a visit. _Ever_. Not that she was there most of the time. Her adoptive family didn't even know where she lived, as she had just packed her things and left. (Now that she reflected on it, it was a pretty childish thing to do.)

Taking a kunai out of the holster on her thigh she made her way to the door and waited.

Whoever was on the other side raked his knuckles against the door again.

Slowly the blond reached for the door and unlocked it with an audible click. She then put her hand on the knob and turned it, opening the door.

Before her stood two people. One of them she recognized, the other one she didn't. Kiba stood there with a raised eyebrow and the woman with short black hair at his side smiled sheepishly.

"Please, excuse us for coming here in the middle of the night, but are you Uzumaki Naru?" She asked. She was obviously uncomfortable about something, but Naru was pretty much used to it. She admitted to herself that while her hairstyle effectively hid her face it was also pretty creepy.

"That's me."

"What's with the hair?" Kiba asked as tentatively as only an Inuzuka could.

Naru turned her head slightly to show that she was facing him and said nothing.

"Sheesh, just curious." He said and turned to face the wall, finding the cracks in it very interesting.

"My name is Shizune, pleased to meet you. Hokage-sama wishes to speak to you right now. If you would follow me please?" The woman said.

Naru didn't hesitate for a moment. Her earlier attempts to get an audience with the Hokage were ignored, most likely the requests never reached even the Hokage's secretary. If she now had the chance to at the very least _try_ to change her current situation, she would take it no matter what.

She nodded curtly and closed the door behind her, leaving her packed backpack in the apartment. The council could kiss her scarred ass together with their mission. According to the law, the Hokage's orders came first.

Shizune took a nervous glance at Kiba and turned to leave, Naru following close behind. It appeared that her presence made her two companions rather nervous, but Naru didn't care. The only thing that mattered was the appointment with the Godaime.

Soon enough they arrived at the Hokage tower and entered. Kiba excused himself to get back to work. Naru was shortly surprised, never having thought that Kiba was one to go for paperwork but dismissed it quickly in favor of her appointment.

As they reached the double doors that were the entrance to the Godaime's office Shizune turned and asked her to wait for a moment, knocking on the door and entering upon hearing an audible "Enter." From the inside. After a few seconds the door opened again and Shizune motioned for her to come inside.

**AN: Alright folks. To make some things perfectly clear. This will _not_ be SasuNaru. It also won't be yuri or shoujo-ai. This also won't have any bashing of any kind. Don't expect fast updates, I have a very busy life right now. Also, English isn't my mother language, so if you find some mistakes, feel free to point them out but don't rub them in my face. And lasltly... Review! Thanks in advance.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Alright folks, here is the second chapter. I'd like to thank the reviewers, but I would also like to clear some things up. First off, as I already mentioned, there will be no bashing in this story. As for pairings, I would like to tell you that any and all suggestions will be ignored unless they have a valid point. Right now the top candidates (the ones I picked, not you) are as follows: Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji. So far there has been a single suggestion for Gaara, but it has been coldly rejected. Sorry IEatChicken, but although Gaara got better with his social skills in this story as well as in canon, I just can't see him developing this kind of feelings. In other words I am unable to write it, although I agree that they are indeed kindred spirits. On that note, keep in mind that even if two people have a lot in common (especially if it is some kind of unpleasant experience) they are not necessarily a good match for each other. I know that from personal experience, so don't even try to convince me otherwise.**

**I would also like to note, that this is not an invitation to start a pairings poll. I will most likely decide a pairing on my own and then edit the story category to fit it.**

**Also, even though the secondary genre is romance, the _primary_ genre is drama, so don't expect any romantical involvements too soon. As you can read in my profile (Beware though, it is not safe for children and might offend you in some way, so you might reconsider reading it.) I prefer_ slow and steady_ development of a romance instead of a shallow, quick description of how two characters fall for each other on first sight.**

**That being said, on with the story.**

**Foster**

**Chapter 2**

Tsunade closed her eyes in contemplation. The young Uzumaki had been already dismissed with an order to seek out Shizune for treatment of her scars on the next day, seeing as it was still the middle of the night. The story of Naru had been tragic, but on the other hand...Tsunade was going to have the council's asses now. On a silver platter. They had no right whatsoever to assign S-ranked missions without the Hokage's permission, let alone to a_ genin_. Tsunade's smile would have scared any hardened shinobi, had they seen her at that moment. She had been unsatisfied with the council for a while now, despite the fact that they were doing a decent job of keeping the different clans and powerful families at bay. Recently however they started to try and diminish her authority because they didn't agree with her way of dealing with the war against Sound. According to them, a decisive strike at the main base of the opponent was necessary in order to secure their victory. Tsunade disagreed, reminding them that there were multiple bases all around the elemental nations and not one of them could with certainty be called the main. Knowing Orochimaru, he didn't have one at all, or placed it in a country that Konoha was not on good terms with. Trying to ambush such a base would result in a war not only against Sound, but also against Rock, Cloud, or potentially, although not likely, Mist.

The reason the council still remained adamant, as Tsunade suspected, was their unfounded pride as well as severe overestimation of their opponent. They believed Orochimaru to be a major threat, although in fact he wasn't. Of course, he was a very powerful shinobi, with almost no equals, but he was the only one with such abilities in Sound. And as history has proven, a single great fighter, no matter how good, couldn't conquer an entire nation. The rest of the Sound shinobi were barely passable as chuunin, seeing as their _elite_ had been defeated by a bunch of genin when they attempted (and failed) to abduct Sasuke. Overall, Orochimaru seemed more interested in obtaining the Sharingan than winning the war against Konoha. It appeared as if the entire village of Sound was nothing more than a disposable tool to him. It became even more evident after he failed to plant one of his cursed seals on his target, due to the interference of Mitarashi Anko, and used the Sound genin that were taking the chuunin exam as a sacrifice for his jutsu. On top of that the man had next to no leadership qualities, seeing as the only shinobi he was able to persuade to join him were either not all that bright, equally as insane as him or very young.

The council seemed to have a much higher opinion of him and was not willing to change it.

There was a knock on the door. Tsunade raised her head and waited until the door opened to reveal her old teammate Jiraiya. She still didn't know what happened to him and he refused to talk about it, saying it was something personal. He was clad in his old jounin uniform and wore the standard forehead protector to hold his white mane in check. This was probably not the most drastic change about him, however. In the last four years he didn't write a single letter for his popular perverted Icha Icha series. He started acting that way a short time after he and Kiba had come back from their Legendary Sucker hunt, with herself in tow. Tsunade suspected that it had something to do with their sensei's death, but had yet to receive any proof. He had been obediently taking missions as a regular shinobi of the Leaf, but refused to take any students other than Kiba. The old pervert seemed to have grown fond of the boy.

"Hey." He greeted her unenthusiastically. "Just came back from that mission you got me."

"You can give me the report later. Right now I have very good news." Tsunade smiled creepily again and made a pause to make sure she had Jiraiya's attention.

"I'm listening." He grinned a little and made his way to sit down in a chair that stood opposite from her desk.

"The council is mine." Tsunade declared. "They have been assigning S-ranked missions without my permission for four years now."

Jiraiya let out a chuckle.

"Well, they are in for the ride of their lives, if that look in your eyes is anything to go by." He crossed his legs and rested his back against the chair.

"That's not the most ridiculous part. They had been assigning them to a _genin_." Tsunade continued, reaching under her desk to take out a bottle of sake and two cups, ripping the cork out with her teeth and pouring the rice wine for herself and the white haired man.

As expected Jiraiya grunted a little, a sound that was very close to a growl.

"What were these sick fucks thinking?"

"To put it shortly they wanted to see the girl dead. Apparently they thought that the seal was not enough of an insurance." She handed the cup to him.

"What seal?" The toad Sannin frowned as he brought the cup to his lips.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I'm talking about the Uzumaki girl and the Yondaime's se-..."

The sound of something ceramic breaking into pieces made her stop and look up from her own cup to look at Jiraiya. His sake was spilled all over the floor together with the shards of the cup. He had an unreadable expression on his face, not because it was blank, but rather because there were so many different emotions flashing over it.

"Whats wrong?"

Jiraiya moved his eyes to meet hers and in that moment Tsunade was able to see raw emotion in there, something that he was lacking in these past four years.

"Naru? You mean Uzumaki Naru?" He asked, even thought he knew that there was no other Uzumaki to be found anywhere in Konoha.

"Yeah, her. Why does it trouble you that much?" Tsunade frowned. She expected him to be angry, furious even. She knew that he had vowed to look out for the girl, for the sake of his old student... But this desperation that he showed right now, as if the words about Naru were his last lifeline, that didn't make sense at all.

"They told me she was dead." He said, his eyes becoming cold and his voice gaining an edge to it. "These old fuckers told me she was dead, when I asked them to take her and Kiba on a training trip not a day after we brought you back!"

Jiraiya all but jumped out of his chair, making it topple over on the floor and started pacing the room, as if to decide what he wanted to do.

Tsunade's eyes widened. So that was the reason behind her teammate's change... But that was rather irrelevant now. What mattered now, was saving the worthless lives of the council members, before Jiraiya killed them.

He already stopped, took out a kunai and was examining it intently.

"Hey, what do you think is the better way?" He asked, still looking at his kunai. "Slow and painful or _very_ slow and _very_ painful?"

The Godaime found herself shuddering. Usually she would have laughed at his words, considering them a joke, but the tone of his voice indicated that he was deadly serious. And she knew for a fact that so far, no one had survived it when Jiraiya got _really_ mad at them.

"Calm down." She ordered. Jiraiya seemed to come out of a trance and looked at her in bewilderment, as if noticing her presence for the first time.

"I understand how you feel, but you have to calm down. Killing those worthless bastards will not make everything that happened undone. Right now I need you to go to sleep and seek out Shizune tomorrow morning. Naru has an appointment with her for some long overdue medical treatment and I want you to meet her and take a look at the seal. From what she told me, the Kyuubi might be dead."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed into slits.

"What treatment?" He asked, as if the part about Kyuubi didn't bother him at all. Tsunade realized that rescuing the council members was going to be close to impossible. She sighed. It was better to tell him now than wait until he found out on his own, because then she was sure he definitely would kill everyone who had even the tiniest bit of connection to what happened.

* * *

Naru laid in her bed and stared at the ceiling. The talk with the Hokage had proven to yield results after all. Throughout their conversation the Godaime had kept her calm, despite her obvious difficulties to do so. 

The young blond wasn't kidding herself into pretending that she didn't know the warm feeling that spread over her just by watching someone else be worried and concerned about her. It felt good, even though she had almost forgotten that someone used to do it sometime ago. The Third had always been concerned and worried. Despite herself, Naru found that she could respect the current Hokage at least a little bit. She still thought that the Godaime was sorely lacking in the responsibility department, seeing as it was partly her fault Naru had spent the last four years on suicide missions. Had Tsunade gone through the paperwork earlier she would have noticed and possibly put a stop to it.

But the 'what ifs' didn't matter anymore. Tsunade had given her word that Naru would not be sent on such missions anymore, at least not alone and not anytime soon.

Slowly but surely the blond's bedroom began to brighten up as the sun found it's way to the horizon.

The kunoichi stood up and made her way to the window. Due to the general emptiness of the neighborhood she lived in, there were no people on the streets below, making this part of Konoha look like a ghost town.

Turning around and taking a look at the clock Naru discovered that she still had more than an hour until her appointment with Tsunade's apprentice Shizune. Deciding that she might as well take a walk and a look around the village, the former jailer of the Kyuubi walked out of the bedroom, put on her sandals and left her apartment.

Making her way down the stairs, being careful to avoid the ones that tended to make squeaking sounds when one stepped on them, Naru soon found herself on the empty street. For some reason she felt that she didn't want to disturb this serene silence that hung in the air and proceeded down the road, using her best stealth skills to not make a single sound. It wasn't completely silent though. There were the waking up birds and the sound of rustling leaves. Naru supposed that those little factors were what made the silence serene in the first place. Had it been totally and completely silent, it would have been rather creepy instead.

Nevertheless, as she passed block after block of empty streets, the aforementioned streets began to not be so empty anymore. Here and there there would be an old man or woman passing by, or the occasional merchant on his way to the district he worked at. Continuing on her way, Naru couldn't help but notice the absence of the stares and glares that she had been forced to live with for the first twelve years of her life. Sure, some people would gaze at her while walking by, but that was as much attention as she got. She supposed it was only natural. After all, she hadn't been around for four years, almost always out of Konoha on missions. And when the council took some time to find an appropriately dangerous mission for her, she mostly lounged inside her apartment. It seemed that the people of Konoha simply didn't recognize her for who she was. Not that they ever did.

Taking a look at the sun to determine the current time, she found that she should probably head for Shizune's clinic already. It was better to be early than late, after all. Not to mention that the walk around the waking up Konoha felt rather uncomfortable for some reason, as if she was tresspassing on someone else's territory.

Having determined her course of action, Naru swiftly turned around and found the shield that was labeling the street she was on. It would take around ten minutes to get from here to the clinic without jumping up and onto the rooftops and seeing as she still had some time to spare, the blond decided to do just that.

Ten minutes later she found herself on the doorstep of a medium sized building, with a large metallic shield imprinted into the wall, that had Shizune's name and her medic nin title engraved into it. The sign that hung behind the glass door said 'Open' in large, blue letters.

Shrugging, Naru pried the door open and walked in. Her nose was immediately assaulted by several strong smells which, while not necessarily disgusting, were not really pleasant either. The young kunoichi could distinguish the antiseptic but the rest of the unidentified scents was beyond her.

Taking a look around proved futile as there was nothing there, except a bright red arrow pointing down a corridor. Shrugging again, Naru followed the arrow. Soon enough she found a desk which looked as if the one responsible for it was quite busy. There was a bell on the table, with a piece of paper attached to it. Reading the paper provided Naru with the information, that should the receptionist be absent, she was supposed to ring the bell only once and wait until he came back.

Naru did just that and was rewarded with the sound of hurrying footsteps. A girl that looked a couple of years younger than the blond kunoichi emerged from around a corner, smiled sheepishly at her and made her way to sit behind the desk.

Naru squinted a little at the girl. She seemed somewhat familiar... Red hair, standing up in two...horns? Tails? Naru didn't really know. Cheeks with a healthy blush on them... Dark eyes...

"Moegi?"

"Hmm? Have we met somewhere?" Sure enough the girl answered to the name and tilted her head to the side a little, as if trying to get a better look at Naru's face, which was impossible since it was covered with hair.

"Yeah. I'm Uzumaki Naru. Remember me?" The blond kunoichi couldn't help but smile a little as a bright grin of recognition found it's way onto Moegi's face.

"Naru-nee! Of course I remember! It's been a while, but Konohamaru and Udon still remember you too. We had some fun times together after all." She smiled brightly and leaned forward, supporting her head with her hands. "So, what brings you here?"

"I have an appointment with Shizune-san in a couple of minutes. Since when are you working here? I thought you wanted to become a kunoichi?" Naru couldn't help her curiosity. The girl in front of her as well as the other two members of the Konohamaru Corps really _did _have some fun times together, be it eating ramen or simply playing around.

The smile on Moegi's face brightened even more.

"Of course! I did become a kunoichi, even though I'm still a genin. I'm the only one suitable to be a medic on our team, so they had me study a little under Shizune-shishou. It hasn't been very long yet, though."

"That's great for you." Naru smiled as Moegi began to energetically nod her head. Just as the older kunoichi was about to ask about some other mundane things, the two were interrupted by the arrival of two different people.

This time Shizune was accompanied by a large man with a mane of white spiky hair. He was clad in some faded green ninja grab with a bright red jacked draped over it and instead of the usual ninja sandals he wore geta. A horned forehead protector kept the hair out of his eyes and Naru recognized the symbol that was written on it as kanji for oil.

The man was currently laughing obnoxiously at something and Shizune seemed to be beaming with excitement. Naru briefly considered if the two were maybe a pair, but soon dismissed the possibility seeing as despite their obvious comfort around each other they didn't behave like a couple.

Soon the two reached the desk and Shizune greeted them.

"Good morning, Uzumaki-san, Moegi-chan.. May I introduce you, this is one of the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya-sama..." She was cut off by the man next to her as he once again burst into laughter.

"You may also know, that I am the amazing author of the most popular novel series around the elemental countries..." He made a dramatic pause, before swiftly reaching behind his back and withdrawing an orange colored book, thrusting it forward for the two young girls to see. "The Icha Icha series!" He announced proudly before grinning broadly. "If you ask nicely I may even give a signed copy to you for free!"

Naru lowered her gaze to look at the book and spotted the sign that prohibited anyone who had not yet come of age from reading it.

"Err, I think I'll pass."

Jiraiya pouted a little at the quick dismissal and put the book back.

Shizune giggled at the display and motioned with her hand to a door further down the corridor.

"Let's go to my office and get to business, now shall we?" As she began to lead the way, Naru told Moegi goodbye and followed. To her surprise the white haired man also joined them in the room.

The room itself was, just as it's name suggested, an office. There were several posters on the walls, picturing the human body either without skin, in order to show the different muscles and inner organs, or with detailed blue lines that represented the chakra pathways. There were several large bookshelves, a hardwood desk, a couple of chairs and a lot of different decorative details that were supposed to make the room look comfortable.

Shizune motioned for her guests to sit in the chairs and sat herself behind the desk, across of them.

"Uzumaki-san, first off, I would like to say that it will most likely take several weeks, maybe months to get rids of the scars completely. Judging from Godaime-sama's observations the scarring extends over your whole body, correct?"

Naru nodded.

"I didn't expect them to miraculously vanish overnight anyway. That matter aside, with all due respect, but what is Jiraiya-sama doing here?"

The two adults exchanged looks before the toad Sannin cleared his throat.

"Tsunade asked me to take a look at the seal. In the report from two years ago, as well as in yesterday's talk with her you mentioned that the Kyuubi disappeared. I'm here to investigate whether or not it is really completely gone, and if so, than where did it go. We can not exclude the possibility-"

"That I'm lying?" Naru cut off, her brows furrowing in anger. The white haired man seemed to recoil at her harsh tone and waved his arms in front of himself while turning in his chair to face her.

"That's not what I was about to say. There is the possibility that the Kyuubi was extracted from you while you were unconscious or under the effects of some drugs. If that happened, then I will surely find out, whether the seal has been tampered with or not." He smiled at her, although it was slightly strained.

"Oh. Err, sorry." Naru would have probably blushed in embarrassment if her mutilated skin had allowed that.

"It's ok. I really expected you to be a lot more bitter about the whole ordeal." Jiraiya smiled again, this time a lot more easier.

"I just don't see the point of brooding about the past, that's all." The blond kunoichi replied dismissively before turning to face Shizune again. "So, when do we start?"

"I'd like you to tell me where you would prefer to have the scars removed first from." Shizune replied while opening a thick folder and quickly skimming through it.

"That's an easy one. My face."

Shizune nodded.

"I thought as much. I will first remove the scars that hinder your face from moving in some parts and the ones around the eyes. We'll see what to do next as we go with it. But first I'd like to do a diagnostic jutsu on you to see if maybe there has been some damage inside your body that remained unnoticed before." The dark haired woman scribbled something down into the folder and closed it.

"Well then. Uzumaki-san, go to the examination room and change into one of the gowns that you'll find lying on top of the bed. I'll be right there."

All three of them had stood up at that point and were making their way to the door.

"Jiraiya-sama will look at the seal when I'm finished, it shouldn't take longer than half an hour."

The toad hermit nodded and opened the door, letting the two females out first.

* * *

Later that day, Naru was once again inside her apartment, gazing at her reflection in the mirror. The hair that usually hung in front of her face was temporarily pinned to the side by a hairpin she found in the box that held her old possessions. To someone else her face would have probably looked just as bad as before, but the blond couldn't stop marveling at the few spots of new pink skin, unmarked by any scars. As Shizune had later explained, the scars could not be removed quite as easily, because some of them were already two years old while others were relatively fresh. Seeing as they needed a specific amount of medical chakra applied to them, it would make sense to remove them in descending order, depending on their age. Also, it was apparently not healthy to use too much medical chakra, especially if the chakra was someone else's, on the skin which was the main reason as to why it couldn't be done at once and would take multiple weeks. 

Naru's lips slowly curled themselves upward. Not only was she getting rid of the scars, but it had been definitely confirmed that the Kyuubi was dead. This was possibly the best day in the past four years.

* * *

Tsunade gazed at Shizune and Jiraiya who both sat before her. 

"So, what have we learned?" She asked, taking a look at the toad sage. As much as she wanted to give Naru priority, Kyuubi's fate was more important to Konoha right now.

Jiraiya's face lit up like a candle light.

"It's just as she said... The demon fox is dead!" He grinned broadly, obviously very happy with himself and the world in general. Tsunade frowned.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really." It seemed that after learning of Naru's survival, not only his old clothing style but also all of Jiraiya's bad habits had resurfaced. "But since you're asking me so nicely I can't refuse, now can I?"

"No. You can't." Tsunade confirmed, closing her eyes in an attempt to cool her rising temper. As if the wind had blown away all of Jiraiya's childishness, his face became serious once again.

"It's the seal." He began. "I never got a chance to look at it properly, back when it was made. But now I can say for sure that it's a simple masterpiece. It was designed in a way that forcibly drained small amounts of the demon's chakra and used it to heal, no... regenerate any wounds Naru sustained, unless they were lethal. When she was tortured by Orochimaru's henchmen, the seal did just that. From the mission report you gave me, she had been in their hands for over seven months. From those seven months she had been injured without a break for about four months. They didn't even let her sleep, the only reason she survived and still has her sanity is because she fell unconscious from time to time!" Jiraiya stopped and took a calming breath. "Anyway. As I said, the seal forcibly drained Kyuubi's chakra and from what I understand it took quite a lot of raw chakra to heal even small wounds." He continued "Since the injuries were inflicted constantly, the demon had no time to replenish it's energy and after some time it simply ran out of it. But of course the seal didn't stop at the point of the demon's exhaustion. It sucked every last bit of chakra out of the Kyuubi, thus killing it. It's actually pretty pathetic, for the most powerful Bijuu to die from chakra exhaustion." The toad Sannin chuckled a little as he finished his tale.

Tsunade sat there, her eyes disbelieving, but soon she too let out a chuckle along with a relieved breath.

"I already thought that bringing the council under my control was good news, but this is simply amazing." She allowed herself to relax inside her chair and closed her eyes. "Now to the matter that we are all equally interested in. How is Naru's treatment going?"

Shizune, who had been listening intently, perked up at this as hurriedly withdrew the thick folder from earlier in the day.

"As expected, it will take some time until Uzumaki-san will complete the scars removal course. But aside from that, she will make a full recovery. There also were no internal injuries, at least none that I didn't take care of immediately. They were nothing serious, though. My estimate until her treatment is complete is about three weeks from now. The process should speed up considerably after the first week, so it won't take as much time as I first suspected." Shizune closed her folder, put it on her lap and clasped her hands on top of it.

"Good." Tsunade nodded in satisfaction and stood up. She slowly walked towards the window and peered outside of it. "Now, Shizune I want you to go and summon all the council members." Tsunade's reflection in the glass smirked evilly. "Jiraiya, you will stay here. I want you to attend the... meeting the council and I will have."

Shizune felt shivers run down her spine, as she watched a matching smirk appear on the usually carefree and cheerful face of the toad hermit.

"I would have attended even if you had banned me from doing it." He said as he stood up and joined Tsunade in gazing out of the window.

The dark haired medic nin felt that she should leave before the two of them scared her even more. Nevertheless she decided that a small session of listening in on the upcoming conversation was in order and made a mental note to bring a glass in order to hear what was going on behind the wall better.

After the sound of the door closing reached their ears, Jiraiya voiced his thoughts.

"Do you really think you will be able to get them this time?"

"Yeah. They might have reasoned their way out of it if Naru still had the Kyuubi, but this time it's different. Moreover, she filed the report not only to me but also to the council, so they can't pretend to not know anything. I already had my agents make copies of all the mission reports they received from the girl, so the old timers can't say they never got them. This is going to be a bloodbath. After I'm done with them, half of the council will be replaced. Replaced by people I can trust and rely on." Tsunade grinned.

"You're getting pretty good at this politics stuff, you know that?"

"Yeah, I've been practicing. This time it isn't a gamble. This time it's a guarantee."

**AN: And it's done. I hope you guys like it. As usual, please review**.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hey, folks. First, I'd like to answer to some reviews that have been submitted to the story, since I am too damn lazy to do it via PM and want the extra words added to the chapter (hey, at least I'm honest).**

**First off, I'm glad that so many of you agree with the pairings I suggested.**

**Dragonheart0000, I'm sorry that I'll probably loose you as a reader, but just as you don't see KibaNaru, I can't see GaaraNaru or NajiNaru. Also, even though I'd hate to lose readers on my very first fanfic, I feel that there will be still plenty of people who will enjoy, or at the very least like my story. My story stats so far have proven it. Once again, I'm sorry, but I'm sticking to one of the three pairings I brought up in the second chapter.**

**Ddd: ItaNaru? Hmmm...Let me think...No. Self explanatory.**

**xXKuroTenshiXx : I think, I will send a personal message to you, even though I'm lazy :).**

**To all the rest of you, a big fat THANK YOU!**

**I would like to say that originally I intended to skip the whole council meeting thing, but since so many of you were looking forward to it, i decided that I might as well write it.**

**On with the story.**

**Foster**

**Chapter 3 **

About an hour after Tsunade requested the audience with the council, all of it's members were finally present and seated in their respective places. Unlike what one might think about the council of a ninja village, it mainly consisted of the most influential families in Konoha which by no means were shinobi themselves. Sure, most of them had family members who had taken that path, but the men and women seated before the Godaime were all either merchants, nobles or people who had earned a fortune and knew how to invest it in some other way. The only people present who had been shinobi at some point, were the Sandaime's team mates and even they were merely advisors and not an official part of the group. This was what the council of Konoha really was. A bunch of rich people who were used to have things going their way. As much as the clan heads of the shinobi had tried to at the very least get one of their clansmen onto the council, they never succeeded. It was originally the idea of the First Hokage, to let the villagers have a say in the political doings of the place they lived in. Tsunade would be the first to admit that it was a wise decision... at the time.

However, as times changed and Konoha grew into one of the most powerful hidden villages in the elemental countries, becoming richer and gaining prestige, corruption and power struggles found their way into the formerly perfect council. In the time of the second Great Shinobi War the council seemingly found it's true purpose again and acted solely in the best interests of the village, but as peace once again took place, they promptly reverted to their state of conflict with the Hokage and among themselves. Even now that they were officially at war with Sound the council brought up ridiculous suggestions and overall seemed more concerned about their own wellbeing. Tsunade supposed that their current state could be explained by the way the war was led. Even after the invasion four and a half years ago there had been little to no confrontations with the opposing force. There were several small skirmishes between the Konoha and Sound ninja, closer to the border, but the Godaime could count those on the fingers of one hand.

But all of this would find an end today.

Jiraiya stood at her side as she took her place at the head of the long table that had been summoned from a scroll. As the council members settled down and finally turned their attention to the one who summoned them, Tsunade looked each and every one of them in the eye, promptly pulling the room into very uncomfortable silence (for everyone but herself and Jiraiya, both of whom couldn't care less).

Very slowly she eased herself out of her chair again and made her way to her desk, seemingly shuffling through some random papers.

"I am glad you could all make it here..." She began, her tone rather passive. "I suppose you are all wandering, why I made you come here without any forewarning and jerked you out of whatever important business you were in the middle of at that moment..." She withdrew several folders from a pile on her desk and once again seated herself at the head of the table, silently regarding the rather confused faces before her.

One of the more confused councilmen nodded.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I am wondering about that. Did something important happen on the front lines? I had to cancel a meeting with a very important client which can have a very bad effect on the reputation of my agency, so I hope you will forgive my curiosity..." He trailed off after meeting the amber eyes of the Hokage.

Without saying anything, Tsunade took one of the folders and threw it, so it landed before the man who asked the question.

"Please, take a look at this and tell me what you think." She advised, her voice still not betraying any emotion. The man opened the folder and skimmed over it.

"It seems to be a mission report... But it's already several years old... What does this have to do with today's mee-" He was cut off by the Godaime.

"Read from the very start. And read it out loud, so that the others can hear you."

The addressed council member felt himself beginning to sweat.

"Err...Mission report...Rank S...Assigned shinobi... Uzumaki Naru..." He trailed off, taking a look around the table. The other members began to show first signs of discomfort as well.

"That's enough." Tsunade said, after she was convinced that the council already knew what this was about.

"You know as well as I do that all S-ranked missions have to be assigned by the Hokage personally. How come I was kept in the dark about all of this for more than four years?!" She finally raised her voice a little, showing her overall displeasure with the situation. She was sure that at least some of them would take the bait. As expected, most of the addressed people seemed to stiffen right away, some of them looked genuinely confused, while others seemed to relax. One of the more relaxed ones spoke up. Hook, line and sinker.

"Oh, of course, Hokage-sama. The thing is, this Uzumaki Naru is actually the Kyuubi-" The old woman who was speaking quickly shut up as a thick folder was slammed down right before her by Jiraiya. The force he put behind his hand, was enough to make the table crack audibly under the pressure.

"Read it." Tsunade ordered.

The woman seemed to swallow her fear and began reading, her voice slightly shaky.

"Mission report, rank S. Assigned shinobi: Uzumaki Naru. Team: none. Objectives: infiltrate and destroy the hostile outposts at the following coordinates..." Tsunade tuned out the mission details until the actual report began. "After successfully destroying two of the targets, I was apprehended and incapacitated while engaging two enemy ninja. I was held prisoner for seven months. During that period of time several experiments were conducted on my person, seeing as the enemy had discovered my accelerated healing rate. After a certain period of time (I believe it to be about four months, but I can not be sure) the accelerated healing came to a stop and did not yet return which leads me to believe that something happened to the Kyuubi no Kitsune that was sealed into me at birth. (I suggest investigating the matter with the help of a seal expert.). Details on the mission: The first outpost was-"

"Enough." Tsunade once again interfered and regarded the council warily. By now all of the members were pale and some were sweating profusely. Only the former team mates of the Third seemed unaffected. Tsunade sighed and waved her hand. "Jiraiya, you may take over."

The white haired man made his way back to her side and addressed the council.

"All of you are as of now accused of treason against Konoha." Several shocked gasps resounded around the room but the council members remained seated and silent, obviously understanding that they were caught red handed. "The punishment for treason is either death, or lifelong sentence in one of Konoha's prisons. Either way, I think it is safe to say that most of you, except the ones who can prove their innocence will no longer be members on the council. We will investigate who of you had a part in this and who didn't, however we already have evidence that at the very least two thirds of you have known about this and did nothing to bring it to the Hokage's knowledge. While it isn't considered treason, it is still a crime that will be punished. Also_all_ of you have lead me to believe that Uzumaki Naru was dead. Since I am not the Hokage, this can not be considered a crime but it _will_ play a role in the trial.

"I would also like to note that I took the liberty to examine the seal after I learned of what _actually_ happened. My examination has proven that the Kyuubi is dead."

Once again the room was filled with shocked gasps and in some cases even breakdowns, when the ones who were the masterminds behind the whole plot seemed to realize that they were done for. Meanwhile Jiraiya mercilessly continued.

"Uzumaki Naru has never been the Kyuubi however, and thus presented no threat to the village. Her official rank is genin, not to mention that she hasn't even passed the individual test she _was_ supposed to receive from her assigned jounin instructor. All of this combined is more than enough to sentence most of you to death." He concluded and turned to Tsunade, nodding at her.

The room meanwhile had turned into a mess, as the council members broke down one after another. The Godaime waited patiently until the implication of their impending death sunk in.

"However." She said loudly over the sobs of the female council members as well as some of the males. Their heads snapped up to look at her, making her wince. Moving the head as fast as this _had_ to hurt. The hope in their eyes was evident. Tsunade grinned mentally. Now was the time to strike. The truth of the matter was that while she did have evidence on some of them, it wasn't as much as she made them believe it was.

"I am willing to let the punishment be less severe if all of you officially resign from the council, right here, right now. It would look bad if somehow our clients learned that Konoha has sentenced it's own council to death or put them in prison." She opened another folder she brought from her desk and threw it into the middle of the table, making the contents spill out. "These are the resignation forms you need to fill out. If some of you refuse..." She trailed off meaningfully and watched with satisfaction as the council members unwillingly, and in some cases still sobbing took the papers with shaking hands.

Suddenly a voice spoke up. It was Koharu, the old hag (and that meant something if Tsunade was the one to say it) who had been watching all of the procedures in silence until now.

"What are you planning, Tsunade?" Unlike the council members she seemed to have kept her bearings and didn't look in the least worried. Once again, Tsunade had to grin in her mind.

"I am making them a fair deal. I can not offer this deal to you, however, since you are not a part of the council, but were still deeply involved into this mess. I'm afraid you will have to face the trial and the full punishment. Of course that applies to you _and_ your former team mate."

This seemed to get a reaction out of her. She paled considerably and straightened her back in defiance.

"You have nothing on me. You are bluffing, and we both know how terrible you are at gambling."

"Oh, but I _have_ something on you. Or did you forget that all of the reports that are sent to the council go through _you_? Or are you saying that you just happened to miss those particular fifty seven ones?" Tsunade could almost hear the sound of Koharu's teeth grinding against each other. Before the older woman could say anything else, Homura put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head disapprovingly.

"It was a bad idea to keep it from her. Now we have to face the punishment Tsunade sees fit to put upon us." He turned to look the Godaime in the eyes. "Is there a way to somehow reduce it? I know for sure that you will not sentence us to death, but putting us in prison would result in the same outcome as an execution. You are a smart woman, Tsunade. You must have planned for this. What is it that you want?" He asked, making sure the disturbed council members didn't hear their conversation. The chances of that happening were low, seeing as they were preoccupied with their own problems, but Tsunade appreciated the gesture.

"You are right. As much as I hate to admit it, you two were faithful to Konoha up until this incident. It would also be stupid of me to just let your experience and advise go to waste. I want the two of you to resign as advisors and not to disturb me, or anyone else for that matter. I will personally come to you, if I need your help. I also want you to give me all the information you have on Danzo and his Ne. That is all." Homura nodded and stood up, pulling his slightly dishelved team mate with him.

"You will have all the papers on your desk by tomorrow morning." And with that the two elders departed, leaving the council on their own.

Tsunade let out a sigh and watched as the papers slowly began to stack before her and the number of people in the room decreased. When all the _former_ council members left, the Godaime rubbed her temples. Now she had only one thing bothering her. What role did Sakura, Sasuke and their family play in this whole mess? Right now the two of them were off on a B ranked mission with Kakashi, so she would have to wait until they got back, as she felt uncomfortable asking their parents. In the meantime she would look into Sasuke's folder to see what that note from earlier was about. Tsunade looked at the calender and determined their estimated time of return.

"Two weeks from now, huh?"

Jiraiya looked at her from the corner of his eye, but decided not to question her mumblings.

* * *

Just like that Uzumaki Naru's life had taken a turn for the better. A week after her treatment had begun her face was completely void of any scars, but still looked hideous as it had taken on an ugly shade of pink. But from the facial structure alone, Naru felt it was safe to say that she was actually a little attractive, in a girlish kind of way. She was no startling beauty that was sure to turn heads on the streets, but she was definitely not ugly either.

Naru was also relieved to find out that the facial markings she had since she was a kid were gone.

The only thing that disturbed her, was the toad Sannin. He had taken to visiting her... sometimes at the most inappropriate hours. Sure, she felt honored that one of the three legendary ninja was paying her so much attention...at the beginning. After the third visit at five o'clock in the night she chased him out with a kunai in hand. She made sure to thank him for the fruits he brought on the next day however.

Another week passed and Naru's upper body already looked like that of a human being, albeit, once again, an ugly shade of pink. She received a letter from her house manager telling her that the price for her apartment was cut in half and that she would be refunded for the time she had to pay double the normal fee. The blond pretended not to see the small bloodstain on the paper.

Since her face was now more or less normally colored, she felt it safe to tuck the long hair away with the very same hairpin she found two weeks ago.

It also helped that people didn't recognize her on the streets. The vendors in the shopping district were all actually very nice people, as she found out. So nice, in fact, that she found herself unable to hold a grudge against any of them...except that fat asshole at the vegetables store. But he was a bastard by nature.

Naru put down her shopping bags and began storing away their contents. She still had an appointment with Shizune later today. The blond grinned to herself.

Finally, after the seemingly endless four years, she felt that life was worth living once again.

* * *

Tsunade patiently listened until Kakashi finished his report and excused himself, promptly vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Sasuke snorted in amusement at the antics of his teacher, while Sakura just rolled her eyes. The two were about to leave the office when they were stopped by the Godaime.

"Sasuke, Sakura, please stay. I have some questions for you." She said, putting her chin on the intertwined fingers of her hands. The two shared a confused look before turning to face her once again. Tsunade contemplated about how she should best approach the subject.

"Take a seat, both of you." She advised and waited until both teenagers were on the same eye level as her. "Now...What can you tell me about Uzumaki Naru?" She asked and watched their reactions.

Sasuke immediately stiffened and fisted his hands, looking to the side. Sakura looked shocked first, before her usually smiling green eyes looked sadly at her adopted brother, who was facing away from her. When it was obvious that Sasuke wasn't going to speak, the pink haired girl drew a deep breath.

"She...She was our-"

"Is. She _is_ our sister." Sasuke cut in, his voice low and sharp. Sakura flinched but continued after correcting herself.

"She is our sister...who..." She took another glance at the raven haired boy beside her before continuing. "...vanished about four years ago. Sasuke and her were adopted together by my parents when we were eight..." She trailed off uncertainly. "Shishou, what exactly do you want to know about her?" Tsunade felt glad that Sakura was obviously emotionally conflicted at the moment and hadn't asked the reason _why_ the Godaime wanted to know about Naru in the first place.

"I want to know about your relationship with her." She specified and once again went silent.

Sakura's eyes drifted all around the room, unfocused, before coming to a stop on the window and staring into nothing. After a long pause, in which Sasuke seemed to recover a little, the pink haired girl continued.

"It's difficult, really. She was always a little strange, but after the adoption she became really withdrawn. I... I suppose it was my fault. At the time I had a huge crush on Sasuke and after learning of his family's death I begged my parents to adopt him. At first they refused flat out. Then they went to talk to Sandaime-sama and when they came back they had Naru and Sasuke already with them. I...said something really stupid to her back then." Sakura trailed off and the room once again lapsed into silence. Tsunade thought that she would have to ask her student to continue, but the young medic seemed remember that she had a story to tell and went on.

"As I said, she became really withdrawn after that. She would only come out of her room to eat or go to the academy... After a while Mom insisted that the three of us spend some time together. She forced us to go to Naru's room and stay there for hours on end. We did nothing at first. Then I suggested we play some table top games and Naru agreed." Sakura chuckled a little, her eyes still not focused on anything. "She literally forced Sasuke to play with us."

Again the medic paused, but returned to her story much faster than the last time.

"I'd like to say that we grew closer... but I'm not sure we did, or rather I'm not sure Naru realized that we did.

Because they now had three kids to feed, my parents had to work more and were really irritable so the atmosphere was tense most of the time except on mornings, when we were all still in good spirits. After about a year or maybe a bit later Sasuke developed some sort of...strange rivalry with her. They would both do their best to annoy each other and sometimes both of them went too far and said some more stupid things to each other. It didn't help that I usually sided with Sasuke. I never got along with her like a sister should. It was more like having a second brother, actually." Again Sakura halted her speech, this time to angrily wipe at her eyes, which were slowly beginning to drop tears.

"She got a lot better after we got Iruka-sensei as our homeroom teacher. He went out to her and helped her a lot. She would drag us together to Ichiraku's sometimes. We were supposed to graduate together, but Naru failed her test. Later we found out that she graduated anyway, because of an ordeal involving a traitor called Mizuki, who worked as an assistant at the academy. I don't know why, but she reverted to withdrawing herself again after that.

"Because she was promoted later, she didn't get to be on a team from our graduation class since otherwise there would have been an uneven number of new genin. She was supposed to get assigned a jounin instructor after the chuunin exams, when the class below us would have graduated but...there was the invasion and everything went straight to hell." Again Sakura stopped and sniffed audibly, pulling out a handkerchief from her pouch to wipe at her eyes.

"After the invasion Naru started disappearing for whole weeks and when she came back she looked like she might drop dead on the spot, even though she was never injured. She told Mom that she was sent on dangerous missions, but Mom didn't believe her. No wonder, really...who would send a genin with no experience on A ranked missions and alone at that? This went on for about two months. Once again, Naru just disappeared but this time so did most of her stuff. Mom got really worried, but wrote it off to Naru entering her rebelling age. When she didn't come back three weeks later, Mom went looking for her and Dad went to ask about her at the Hokage tower. Both of them came back empty handed. The next day they both went to the council..." The pink haired girl once again broke off, wiping at her eyes and sniffing.

"And... and they told them she died..." At this point Sakura completely broke down. Sasuke was grinding his his teeth, but when it became apparent that Sakura wasn't going to continue he turned to face Tsunade.

"They were told that Naru was camping somewhere outside Konoha and was assaulted by some enemy ninja. Her body was supposedly lost because of some exploding tags or fire jutsu. I say the story is full of shit." He stood up and started pacing the room, much like Jiraiya did not too long ago.

"How on earth did enemies come so close to Konoha unnoticed when we had strengthened our lookouts and had overall increased security because of the invasion?! If there really were enemies, then why would they use fire jutsu or exploding tags strong enough to obliterate the body on an untrained genin?! I went out and personally looked all around the village to find the spot the supposed battle found place and all I found were some half-assed craters, not nearly enough to destroy a body completely! And all of that aside, Naru isn't the kind of person to just get offed by some random ninja!" Sasuke was breathing hard and his eyes were blazing. Sakura was still crying and hid her face with her palms.

Tsunade sighed. Once again... the council. She found herself regretting that she merely sentenced most of them to about fifteen years in prison, because now she really wanted to kill some of them. Nevertheless, the two ninja before her seemed to feel a strong connection with the Uzumaki girl. The remaining question was... should she tell them? Tsunade raked her brain for any decent ideas but came up empty. She could always ask Naru, and it seemed like the right thing to do, but she had the feeling that the girl would refuse to get reaquaintanced with her family and it would all spiral into a new mess.

The Godaime sighed, picked up a pen and a clear piece of paper and scribbled something down on it. She then beckoned Sasuke to her, as he seemed to be the only of the two capable of comprehending the situation. She handed the paper to him.

"This is her address." At Sasuke's uncomprehending look she continued. "I would like to keep both of you here and explain things to you, but I think that you won't listen to me once you hear that she's alive and just run out in search for her. So get going."

Slowly, Sasuke turned to look at Sakura who had raised her tear stained face to look disbelievingly at Tsunade. Sasuke took another look at the paper in his hand, before clenching it tightly in his fist. With his other hand he grabbed Sakura and dragged her to the window, which opened from the outside.

The Uchiha's wide, disbelieving eyes slowly turned to look at Jiraiya, who winked at him from his perch underneath the windowsill.

"Say something stupid to her, and I'll kill you." The toad Sannin advised cheerily before jumping past Sasuke and into Tsunade's office.

The raven haired boy turned to look at his pink haired sister who in turn looked at him. After a short pause they both jumped out and began their race over the rooftops of Konoha.

Tsunade watched their backs until they disappeared behind some far off buildings.

"Do you think I shouldn't have told them?" She asked, still staring in the general direction the two young ninja went in.

"Nah, you were right. They're both smart kids. They would have figured it out sooner or later and if it had been later then there would have been casualties. And we don't need_that_ on top of everything else." Jiraiya chuckled and sat himself across from her.

"Hey, do you still have that sake you keep in the table?"

**AN: Whoa, finally done. I know, this chapter is shorter than the previous ones but... well... you gotta live with it. It's not _that_ much shorter anyway. I'm not in the least satisfied with how it came out, especially the council part, but I guess it's up to you to judge, so REVIEW! Thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hey, folks. I sure have taken my sweet time with this chapter, didn't I? Oh well, couldn't be avoided. Now, instead of explaining why exactly I wasn't able to update sooner, since I don't think it really interests you, lets just skip to the part where I answer to the reviews, now shall we?**

**As usual, a big fat thanks to all of you.**

**Dragonheart0000, no worries, you didn't offend me. In fact, I think I should be apologizing because the way I have written my response to your last review might have been too harsh. Anyway, I'm glad you will give it a chance.**

**SineDei, I'm not really sure what you mean by 'someone older'. The only characters that are anywhere close to the required age group are Itachi and... well I can't think of anyone else. And I don't feel like making an OC for that.**

**MissFinnish, I think this chapter will answer your questions :)**

**jcogginsa, be proud, you are the first one to threaten me with death xD**

**Naruto-Cool, thanks for the review, but I'm not sure what you meant by saying you didn't mean to make it alert.**

**Insanity's Twin, yes the pink skin will heal. Will it make her drop dead gorgeous? Nah. She will be pretty enough, though, but I don't really intend to do great descriptions of her, unless you people insist on it.**

**TheHybrid02, well, I said that there would be no bashing, didn't I? :)**

**On with the story.**

**Foster**

**Chapter 4**

Uzumaki Naru hummed a pleasant tune to herself as she exited her apartment and turned the key, effectively locking it. It wasn't a strange occurrence for her to hum. She did a lot of humming back in the day. Lately however she never felt like humming, that is until about two weeks ago. Now her habit returned with a vengeance and Naru didn't mind it at all. The blond checked the clock, which hung on the wall inside her apartment and was visible through the window. Satisfied, she set out at a brisk pace for Shizune's clinic. Had she stayed behind for another five minutes she would have been surprised to find two visibly dishelved and mentally exhausted young people at her doorstep. Alas, she preferred to be punctual.

After a short walk she found herself before the by now familiar door with a metal plate hung beside it. The young blond entered and proceeded inside. She was enthusiastically greeted by Moegi and told that she was already being waited for. After entering Shizune's office and greeting each other the two got down to business.

"I am very pleased with the progress we make." Shizune started. "It shouldn't be much longer until your treatment is complete. Now, since you agreed to make me your house medic, I'd like to know whether you plan on continuing your kunoichi career."

Naru didn't really have to think about her answer, since despite everything that had transpired in her life so far, it had always been her dream to be a kunoichi and one day maybe even Hokage. Though that particular dream she always kept to herself.

"Yeah, I'll continue. But not after at least another month of vacation." She grinned.

Shizune smiled and nodded.

"I see. In that case, please do visit the clinic after every mission for checkups, though that goes without saying. Also, I'm going to take the liberty to show you some of the kunoichi tricks. After all, it is rather hard to cover your smell when you're on your period, for example."

Naru's eyes bulged.

"You mean there's a way to do that?! I've been found out on at least five infiltration missions because of that!" She slumped deeper into her chair with a grimace.

Shizune could only sigh. It was common for young kunoichi to be ignorant of the aforementioned techniques, be it because most of them had male instructors who in turn didn't know anything about them, or simply because said instructors assumed that their students were taught about it at the academy. Which sadly wasn't the case. Considering Naru's situation Shizune felt safe to assume that the girl had no clue about the topic and was right about it.

"Yes, certainly. I think I'll talk to Tsunade-sama about finding you a suitable instructor sometime soon. It seems that there is a whole lot of things that you weren't taught that could make your life as a kunoichi considerably easier."

The blond rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah, I picked up on some stuff I overheard, but most of what I can do is self taught."

The dark haired medic made a note to talk to her patient later about that. After all, the girl survived S-ranked missions and even completed most of them successfully. If she taught everything she knew to herself, then there was no telling what she would be capable of if she learned more of the classic ninja arts. For now, however, it was time to continue the scars removal course.

Shizune motioned with her hand for Naru to follow and the two set out in the direction of the treatment room.

* * *

Fifteen minutes after arriving at the apartment which, according to the Hokage's note was inhabited by their sister, Sasuke's and Sakura's patience had almost reached it's limit. However, as the pink haired medic pointed out, breaking in was not an option. The girl was obviously not home which left the two wondering where on earth she might have gone. By now Sasuke regretted not staying a little longer and asking Tsunade about Naru's possible whereabouts.

He observed Sakura idly from the corner of his eye as he leaned against a wall. He could tell that she was nervous beyond belief, even more nervous than on some of the more dangerous missions they had been on. In his mind it was all pretty simple. Once they found their wayward sister they were taking her home and he could once again focus on his revenge, though that particular thought didn't seem quite as appealing as it did when he was younger. He might have spent a little too much time with Shikamaru, for he thought that hunting down his brother and killing him was too troublesome and not worth the effort.

He rubbed his temples in agitation. Sasuke would hate to admit it, even to himself, but he was probably just as nervous as Sakura. It had been a long four years without their blond sister to cheer them up with her stupid jokes and antics. He missed their morning ritual of trying to find out who could ingest more food in the shortest amount of time just as much as he missed her punches. She had alway been a bit more agile than him and always managed to secure at least one good hit on him if she wanted to. Never mind the fact that she got clobbered by Sakura after it.

Their blond sister was an enigma. She didn't do anything special but somehow she managed to hold their family together just with her presence. After her supposed death the people Sasuke had come to think of as a family were never the same. As expected of a woman in her situation, their mother blamed herself for what had happened and shut herself off from her two remaining children for the following year and a half, claiming that she was not good enough to call herself a parent. Even though with time she learned to deal with her guilt, it was still a rarity for her to smile or laugh from her heart.

Their father took it slightly better, but he too seemed to be heavily affected by it. Sasuke noticed that he was at work more often than not, obviously trying to busy himself until he forgot about his problems.

Sakura seemed to have recovered well from their loss, however whenever Naru's name was brought up the pink haired girl was never far from tears.

As for himself... He never accepted his blond sister's supposed death. He knew that the people who knew about the grief of the Haruno family whispered behind his back about him being in denial and maybe he was, but right now he had a solid proof of Naru's continued existance right here, in his sweaty palm.

The old apartment building was constructed in a way that had a balcony-like corridor leading the way from the stairs to a row of doors which were the entrances to the different lodgings. There were also windows, which led from the corridor into the apartments. Sasuke wasn't really surprised to see that there was only one flat that showed any signs of being lived in, seeing as the part of Konoha where the building was located was nearly deserted. He had to admit however that compared to other buildings in the vicinity, this one seemed to be in pretty decent shape.

He turned his head to look through the window and at the clock inside the room. By now it showed that they waited for half an hour. He pondered that it couldn't be much longer and sincerely hoped that everything was going to work out.

* * *

By the time Naru finally reemerged from Shizune's clinic it was already evening and the whole of Konoha was bathed in the red glow of the setting sun. She stretched, popping her elbows above her head with a satisfying sound. Leisurely she walked towards the abandoned part of Konoha she lived in, taking a small detour to Ichiraku's. With the take-out box of the ambrosia that was also known as ramen, she continued on her way.

The old man at the stand obviously didn't recognize her, which was just fine with her at the moment. Unlike Moegi, Teuchi and his daughter had all the time in the world to ask her many uncomfortable questions that she didn't feel like answering.

Not yet.

She vowed to reveal her identity to them once she was a little more confident in herself and more comfortable with the subject. For some reason she felt like it was her who did something wrong and not the council. She remembered reading about it in one of Sakura's magazines back when she still lived with her adoptive family. The article read that the general psyche of a female was somewhat different than that of a male, especially in the puberty which she had not yet left. It was said, that if a male was wronged in some way, he was likely to blame it on everyone but himself. A female on the other hand was more likely to accept it and assume that it was her own fault, all the while wondering what she had done wrong.

Naru frowned in disgust at her stupid hormones. Her derailed train of thought came back to more cheerful topics as the smell of her ramen reached her nose and brought a smile to her lips. The way she was heading home took her through one of the many shopping districts of Konoha and the blond turned her head left and right in curiosity. In one of the windows she spotted a jacket. Making a mental note to bring some money and buy it later she continued onwards. After all, something of such a lovely shade of orange _had_ to be hers. She missed the color dearly since her wardrobe mostly consisted of awfully dark clothes that were suited for the missions but not for her personality. She still had her old clothes, but sadly she had grown out of them a long time ago.

Naru continued moving in the direction of her apartment in the same way, taking short breaks to gaze at something that she found interesting before walking further. It occurred to her that her female spirit must have been awakened because she felt the urge to go inside the shops and look around some more. She blamed her aforementioned hormones.

Another half an hour later finally found Naru in the block where the apartment complex she lived in was located. She thanked gods for the thermoplastic take-out box, which kept her ramen warm. Once she was in front of the building, her senses, sharpened by experience, began tingling but she ignored them. Once she ascended one flight of stairs however, she could no longer deny the two presences that were obviously lounging in front of her apartment.

Naru's hand reached to her thigh, where the kunai holster was usually located. Upon finding nothing she remembered that she left it inside her flat, together with the weapons pouch. That didn't mean that she was unarmed, however. Reaching inside the pocket of her pants she withdrew two gloves, which she had acquired about three years ago. After learning of her chakra affinity, which was wind, and finding out what exactly she could use it for, she came up with this idea. The gloves had small but noticeably sharp spikes protruding from the knuckles and along the lowest phalanges of the fingers. Originally they were used by some street thugs as a substitute for the more famous and safe iron knuckles, seeing as the gloves could easily break the hand inside of them if one punched too strong. Naru modified them a little, by putting some extra padding inside to dampen the impact. It would have probably not been enough if it weren't for her chakra. By channeling it through the gloves, or the spikes on them, to be precise, her fists turned into spears that could easily puncture stone and even steel if it wasn't too thick, with next to no impact. The best part however, was that it wasn't really draining on her chakra. It wasn't very fancy but it worked, as many shinobi who tried to kill her found out a moment before a fist sized hole was punched through them.

Carefully creeping further up the stairs, all the while trying to conceal her chakra, Naru advanced. Her senses told her that the two intruders were relaxed and obviously off guard. She felt herself cooling down a little. Had the guests had ill intentions in mind, they would have at least tried to hide their presence. The blond contemplated sending a shadow clone ahead to try and see what their reaction would be, but dismissed the idea, seeing as such a jutsu would not only alert them to her presence but could be also mistaken as a sign of hostility. She sighed and advanced further. Soon enough she reached the floor of her apartment. However she slightly miscalculated on the last step and a loud squeak resounded through the silent area, as the wooden floor betrayed her. Immediately she saw the two figures, which were covered in the shadow of one of the poles supporting the roof, turn their heads in her direction.

Before the blond kunoichi could so much as ask for their identities she was sent flying by one of the people, as the individual threw himself at her waist, effectively knocking the air out of her. It was so completely unexpected and fast that Naru didn't have any time to react, not to mention there was no place to dodge. Still in mid air, the offender attached to her person, the blond prepared to slam a wind-chakra charged fist through the attacker's head, when she heard an almost inaudible sob from the mop of pink hair that was resting directly under her breasts. Her punch halted, as she gazed at the girl, for it was obviously a female glomping her. And then Naru remembered that the two of them were still airborne. But it was too late and her back impacted with the floor.

Her view of the ceiling was suddenly blocked by the shadow of the second visitor as he leaned over to get a look at her.

"Hey." He said.

Still very much confused, with a sobbing girl clinging to her as if she were her last lifeline and a bit dazed from the fall, Naru could only retort in the same way she was greeted.

"Hey."

* * *

Tense silence filled the living room of the former jailer of the Kyuubi. After identifying the two as her adoptive siblings the group relocated itself inside her apartment, even though Naru felt inclined to just send them off and tell them to never return again. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Not to mention that Sakura's tear stained face was red and puffy and Naru felt that she should at least give her a chance to clean up. For some reason Naru felt glad that the apartment came together with the furniture.

But now she was left alone in the room with Sasuke. The dark haired boy looked at her across the table they were seated at with a serious expression. The blond noted that the usual frown or scowl she remembered him wearing all the time were not present. Instead his face actually betrayed some emotion! The world was going to end!

She chanced a look out of the window to see if maybe there were some flying pigs there or something equally as impossible, that would prove either her insanity or the approaching Armageddon. When none of the signs came she turned to look back at Sasuke. The Uchiha had schooled his features and leaned slightly forward.

"Where have you been?" He asked in a passive tone.

"On missions, mostly." She replied. The blond sincerely hoped that Sasuke felt just as nervous as she did, though if someone asked her for a reason she would probably not be able to answer.

Sasuke's face showed surprise at this revelation. He had assumed that she was captured and had just recently returned to the village... Now that he thought about it, his theory didn't make a lot of sense, seeing as the apartment was obviously in her possession for quite some time. She would have also returned to the Haruno household if everything was as simple as that.

"Then why did you leave?" He inquired.

"Because I wasn't a part of the family, obviously." Naru blurted out before actually thinking. She repeated the phrase so often to herself that every time the question rose up, be it from herself or someone else, she answered automatically.

Sasuke recoiled slightly but still visibly. That... _hurt_. More than he would care to admit.

"You... don't think of us as a family... Is that right?"

Naru frowned, this time taking her time to answer. After a while she was confident that she could express herself clearly.

"It's not like _I_ don't think of you as a family. It was all of you together that had rubbed in the fact that I don't belong. I was never Naru, the daughter of Kana and Shen Haruno. Only Naru, the Dead Last, Idiot, or on occasion Annoying brat. What impression would _you_ have had if you had been in my place? The best _I_ can come up with is some annoying distant cousin that no one really cares about." She finally said. Even though she was nervous she began to slowly feel all the bitterness inside of her wanting to get out. She actually enjoyed it when Sasuke's face twisted, as if in pain, every time she reminded him of the names they called her. The sensation didn't last long however and she let out a sigh.

"Look. It was actually a combination of that and myself being stupid, ok? I'll admit that I should have at least told you that I'd leave, but I figured that you would throw a party to celebrate getting rid of me or something."

Sasuke studied her face in silence for a while before speaking.

"Do you _really_ think we would have done something like that?"

No, she didn't really think like that, not now that she was older and more mature, but she still gave him a look that clearly said _yes_.

Sasuke leaned back into his chair, rubbing at his face with his palms. It was at this point that Sakura finally came out of the bathroom. Her eyes were still red and Naru got the impression that the girl would burst into tears again if she heard anything Sasuke had just gotten an earful of. The pink haired medic joined the two at the table and fidgeted.

Once again the room lapsed into silence.

Finally Sakura got up and made her way to stand in front of Naru, seeing as her chair was positioned at a ninety degree angle to the table.

"It...It's really you, isn't it?" She finally asked, dropping to her knees and trying to get a hold of the blond's hand. A pair of jade green eyes stared pleadingly into a pair of slightly scared and a bit confused sapphire blue ones.

"I think we've established that already." Naru retorted, while crossing her arms over her chest, thus effectively making them unavailable to the pink haired medic's hands, and averting her eyes.

Sakura looked hurt at that, but Naru decided that she had to be strong, no matter how much she wanted to just go back to the way the three of them used to be. She was used to telling herself that it was better that way, that it was a good thing that she left, but just seeing the two sent a warm feeling through her. Not only were they both alive, the two of them seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves. Sasuke was behaving like a human being, for example!

Sakura meanwhile slumped further down, so that now not only her knees but her bottom as well were resting o the floor. Her gaze settled somewhere between her kneecaps.

"I don't blame you for hating me... or any of us for that matter. It's just..." There was a sob and Naru could almost feel that this time the girl wasn't going to stop crying so easily. She looked fearfully at Sakura's head. The medic was clearly about to get emotional on the blond and Naru didn't think she would be able to handle it. How was she supposed to, if she didn't even know how she herself felt about all of this? She was glad that they were here and mad at them at the same time. There were a thousand conflicting emotions running through her head simultaneously. On one hand she just wanted to hug her pink haired sister and tell her everything that happened, while crying herself out, while on the other hand she wanted to close herself off from them once and for all. Why were they here _now_ of all times? Where were they when she was alone on a dangerous mission with dozens of enemies breathing down her neck?

"It's just...we thought you were dead!" Sakura finished and once again threw herself at Naru, surrounding her with her arms. Naru was a bit shocked by that particular piece of news and didn't fend off the over emotional girl immediately. She even went as far as to pat her back.

"I don't hate you. And how did you come up with the idea that I was dead?" She asked while still awkwardly patting her back and looking at Sasuke in search of help.

The raven haired boy closed his eyes (whether it was in order to not witness the emotional scene before him or simply in contemplation, Naru didn't know). He took a deep breath before exhaling his answer.

"The council told us, when we were looking for you all over the place."

"Oh."

Sakura was still sobbing in Naru's shirt and didn't show any signs of stopping anytime soon. The blond had by now grown tired of patting her back and was absentmindedly rubbing soothing circles on it instead.

"Why did they lie to us?" The sharp question of Sasuke made Sakura hiccup loudly and look up at Naru's face, while disentangling herself from the blond.

Naru sighed tiredly. She really didn't feel like explaining all of this to them, since that would lead to Kyuubi, and then to the missions she had been on, including her imprisonment in one of the Sound outposts. However she felt that they weren't just going to leave the issue alone and figured that she could just tell them a part of the whole story.

"Basically they wanted to see me dead." She stated, gaining a startled gasp from Sakura and a widening of eyes from Sasuke.

"But why?"

Naru rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Do you know about the Kyuubi?" She asked, and seeing the confusion on their faces decided to clarify. "You know, the huge fox like demon that almost destroyed Konoha?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"We know what the Kyuubi is. What does it have to do with anything is what we don't understand. It's dead, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, it is." Naru frowned, thinking about her choice of words once more. "The thing is...it wasn't really dead when the Fourth defeated it. You ever heard about Jinchuuriki?" She asked. To her surprise Sakura gasped and covered her mouth with a hand while Sasuke almost jumped out of his chair. "Judging by your reaction, I think you do." Naru stated.

Sakura nodded and opened her mouth to speak, only to hiccup again. Once she had her breathing under control she explained.

"In the chuunin exams, four years ago, there was this boy, Gaara. He had the Ichibi sealed into him at birth...And you had the Kyuubi?" She asked tentatively.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Naru confirmed.

Sasuke shook his head incredulously.

"And you knew the whole time? Why didn't you tell us?!"

"I didn't know myself, until our graduation. Remember that Mizuki incident?" Seeing the two nod, she continued. "Well, he tricked me into stealing the scroll of forbidden jutsu. That's where I learned the Kage Bunshin from, that saved my life and got me promoted to genin. Of course he wanted the scroll for himself, and as soon as he found me, he tried to kill me and Iruka-sensei who found me earlier. In the middle of all the 'I'm gonna kill you' stuff, he explained to me why all the adults seemed to hate my guts." Sakura's eyes widened a little in understanding of something, but she didn't comment on it.

Sasuke seemed to mull all of the information over, before asking his next question.

"So basically, the Third used you to make sure the more powerful clans wouldn't get their hands on me, right?"

Naru nodded.

"That and he used you to finally find someone to adopt me, though chances were that both of us would have remained orphans. I'm still a little surprised the Harunos agreed to it."

Sakura looked at the floor, not finding it in herself to argue.

Their talk was interrupted by a low growling. Both girls tuned to stare at the only male in the room.

"What?" Sasuke flushed. "I didn't eat anything since breakfast!"

Naru gazed longingly at the now empty takeout box. It's contents were spilled somewhere over the street down below, seeing as the ramen didn't survive the fall earlier in the day.

Sakura traced the blond's gaze and grinned a little.

"How about we cut the interrogation short for now and go to Ichiraku's? My treat." She offered generously.

Naru's head told her to refuse the offer, while her heart told her to go and spend some time with her lost siblings. She really didn't want them to go, right now. Her stomach couldn't form such complicated thoughts and simply demanded food.

The former Kyuubi vessel nodded in acceptance. Sasuke grinned and stood up, while Sakura rushed once gain into the bathroom to tidy herself up.

* * *

The walk to Ichiraku's was somewhat awkward. It had been so long since the three of them went anywhere together that the whole experience seemed surreal to all of them. It was dark by now and the streets were only lit by the moon and the stars above. Once they exited the more or less abandoned part of Konoha, the streets became brighter by the second. There were numerous shops and food stands that had lanterns hanging from their roofs and all of it together gave out a very comforting feeling. Naru was also very pleased to note that while she was together with Sasuke and Sakura, she didn't feel as out of place as she used to. What she wasn't pleased to note, and what had escaped her attention before, was the fact that both of them were a lot taller than her. Sakura was visibly shorter than Sasuke, but the top of Naru's head barely reached the medic's nose. The blond was always rather short, but it was made even more obvious by the presence of her visibly taller peers. Shrugging it off, Naru continued on her way.

They could already see the ramen stand in the distance when they were stopped by a voice from behind them.

"Yo."

Naru looked curiously as both Sasuke and Sakura let out an exasperated sigh and turned to face the man that had addressed them.

Upon turning around as well, she found the cyclops of a teacher that was her siblings' sensei. She mulled over in her head, why she so easily accepted them as her siblings, even though she was certain that she didn't feel that way before.

The man lazily turned a page in the orange colored book he was reading, before his eye traveled upwards to look at the trio. He raised an eyebrow at Naru, which she gladly returned.

"Hello sensei. What do you want? We were on our way to Ichiraku's." Sakura whined. The former Kyuubi vessel had to turn and stare at her in wonder, since she had never before heard the pink haired girl...well, whine about something. She either got angry or ignored it altogether.

"Nothing much. I was going to get something to eat myself. Mind if I join you?" He asked, his eye dropping lower until it once again rested on the pages of the book in his hand.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked questioningly at Naru, while Sakura seemed to be ready to tell him off. The blond shrugged and Sasuke sighed exasperatedly. Before the pink haired medic could open her mouth, Sasuke interrupted.

"Sure. Just keep that book to yourself."

Kakashi nodded and walked up to them until he was between Sakura and Naru. The four set off again. After a couple of steps in silence the cyclops decided to ask a question.

"So, Sasuke. Is this blond girl one of your fan girls?"

Sasuke gave him a look and leaned forward a little to see the expression on Naru's face.

Her expression was deceivingly passive as she pulled two gloves from her pocket and slipped them on, flexing her fists experimentally. It reminded Sasuke a lot of how Sakura did it with her own gloves, except Naru's had metal spikes protruding from them. While he doubted that she could punch as hard as Sakura, he was also not going to try and find out what trick there was to them.

He put his hand on Naru's shoulder and squeezed a little, praying that she would get the hint and let it slide. The blond looked up at him with a frown but pulled the gloves off and stuffed them back into her pocket.

"No, sensei. This is Uzumaki Naru, our adoptive sister. I think you've met her a couple of times before, though that was long ago." He clarified.

"Aah." The only visible eye on the man's face closed itself and formed the shape of an upside down 'u', giving the impression that he was smiling. "Sorry about that. So, how have you been? Have you made chuunin yet?" He asked, remembering some ordeal involving the girl and a traitor called Mizuki, which ended in Naru getting accepted as a genin.

"No, didn't have the chance." She supplied sullenly. Any further questions were left for later as they had arrived at their destination.

Naru inhaled deeply, savoring the rich smell of ramen. The four of them made their way inside the stand and onto the stools that stood in front of the counter.

As Naru ordered two bowls of miso and pork ramen, and her companions placed their orders as well, she couldn't help but feel content with herself. For now, she would forget about all the troublesome emotions and just spend some quality time together with her siblings and their annoying sensei. This time Naru blamed not her hormones, but rather her overly forgiving nature, but then again, was there really something to forgive?

**AN: Actually I wanted the plot to advance a bit further than this, but oh well. Describing all the complicated emotions, while trying to not make everyone completely OOC was very tiring, so that's it for the chapter. PLEASE tell me if I messed up somewhere, because I'm pretty sure I did. I mean plotwise. This is the first time I'm writing out something so deeply emotional, and I'm afraid i didn't do very well on it...**

**-sigh-Anyway, hope to hear from you.**


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